Saving Seafood

Adak stakeholders protest denial of proposed cod allocation

July 22, 2021 — Stakeholders of an isolated Aleutians fish plant contend state appointees on the federal fisheries management board have ignored calls for help to keep more of the area’s large Pacific cod catch in Alaska despite a court order that shot down the first attempt to do so.

Representatives from Aleut Corp., which owns the fish processing plant in Adak through a subsidiary, and Peter Pan Seafood Co., have said they need to be able to rely on a foundational allocation of cod from federal fisheries to reopen the currently shuttered plant.

It’s believed a reliable allocation of roughly 5,000 metric tons of Pacific cod to the plants in Adak and Atka, where a plant is also currently closed, would provide a base volume of fish that would allow an operator to keep it open year-round with purchases in the state waters cod and other fisheries throughout the year.

Doing so could provide the ultra-remote community of approximately 300 residents with nearly 200 jobs during peak activity and several dozen steady positions if the plant were operated year-round, they estimate.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council that oversees the largely Seattle-based trawl cod fishery is in the process of reforming those allocations amidst other regulatory changes.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

Fish Out of Water: How Capture Affects Sablefish Health, Reflexes, and Survival

July 13, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Sablefish is a high-quality, deepwater fish that supports a valuable Alaska fishery. The fishery has seen dramatic changes in recent years. The highest abundance of young  sablefish in decades arrived with warming temperatures. At the same time, a rapidly-growing pot fishery has emerged alongside traditional hook-and-line fishing in the Gulf of Alaska. A new study shows that, with careful handling, they are able to withstand the stresses of capture on hook-and-line gear—but their.reflexes could be impaired.

In the directed sablefish fishery, commercial fishermen must retain all sablefish (regardless of size) until individual fishing quotas are filled. Then, all remaining catch is returned to sea. To accurately assess the fish stocks to set sustainable catch limits, managers need to estimate how many of the fish caught and released will survive.

A new collaborative study provides information essential for sustainable management of  the sablefish fishery as it evolves and adapts to changing conditions. NOAA Fisheries  Alaska Fisheries Science Center scientists teamed up with a veterinary professor at Oregon State University. They looked at how the stress of capture and time out of water affects the health and reflexes of sablefish, and whether that contributes to delayed mortality. Their findings provide a better understanding of mortality after release from pot fishing. They provide information essential for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to evaluate the implications of proposed “careful release” of small sablefish before fishing quotas are filled.

Read the full release here

On an Alaskan island, a mayor fights for fur seals – and a new future

July 13, 2021 — Fifty years ago, Patrick Pletnikoff spent his summers stripping blubber from the carcasses of seals clubbed to death in Alaska’s annual harvest, competing with other young men to show who wielded the fastest blade.

Now he’s fighting for a bigger prize: to transform his native St. George Island’s fortunes and protect dwindling colonies of northern fur seals by creating Alaska’s first marine sanctuary in the surrounding waters – a move that would empower local people to limit fishing for the seals’ prey.

Commercial sealing was once the lifeblood of St. George, a treeless speck of volcanic rock far from the U.S. mainland. But the indigenous Unangan community has struggled to find a new niche in the decades since the trade was banned, and there are now less than 60 inhabitants left.

As the long-serving mayor, Pletnikoff has spent years lobbying the federal government to add St. George to the network of 15 U.S. marine sanctuaries, hoping that a designation will kick-start a new “conservation economy” based on eco-tourism, scientific research and sustainable fishing.

Read the full story at Reuters

ALASKA: Council’s Swift Action on BSAI Cod Shuts Down Efforts to Restore Adak’s Seafood Economy

June 24, 2021 — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council moved quickly to adopt a preliminary preferred alternative (PPA) to rationalize the last major race for fish in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands — trawl-caught Pacific cod — which also relegated Adak’s state-of-the-art seafood plant to the bottom of the pile in terms of access to the resource.

“I am announcing today that, based on the Council’s preliminary preferred alternative in the CV [catcher-vessel] trawl package, Peter Pan Seafood Company is suspending all further work in Adak,” said Steve Minor, Manager of Business Development for Peter Pan, on the day after the Council approved the motion.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Alaska pollock giant American Seafoods lands former top NOAA fisheries official

June 11, 2021 — Alaska pollock supplier American Seafoods has hired Chris Oliver, a former top administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as special advisor on government affairs in the company’s regulatory division.

Oliver has has a long career in fisheries. In 2017, he was designated by presidential appointment as Assistant Administrator for Fisheries at NOAA, where he was responsible for the management of commercial and recreational marine fisheries and protected species throughout the US Exclusive Economic Zone, which encompasses the Alaska pollock fishing grounds.

Oliver worked at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council — the government agency charged with managing the Alaska pollock fishery and setting its annual catch quotas– for more than 30 years, as a fisheries biologist, a deputy director, and finally as executive director for 16 years.

Read the full story at IntraFish

NOAA Fisheries Seeks Public Input on Proposal to Close Commercial Salmon Fishing in the Cook Inlet EEZ

June 4, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Council recommended measure responds to court ruling requiring Federal management of EEZ waters in Cook Inlet

NOAA Fisheries is seeking public comments on a proposal to amend the Fishery Management Plan for the Salmon Fisheries in the Exclusive Economic Zone off Alaska (Salmon FMP) to prohibit commercial salmon fishing in federal waters, also called the exclusive economic zone or EEZ, in Cook Inlet. The proposed action would not close any salmon fishing in State of Alaska waters.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council first developed the Salmon FMP under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act more than 40 years ago. The current Salmon FMP excludes designated federal waters in Cook Inlet. That has allowed the State of Alaska to manage commercial salmon fishing in the area.

Read more.

Read the full release here

Amendment 14 to the FMP for the Salmon Fisheries Off Alaska

May 26, 2021 — The following was released was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Summary

Amendment 14 would incorporate the Cook Inlet EEZ Subarea into the Salmon FMP’s West Area, thereby bringing the Cook Inlet EEZ Subarea and the commercial salmon fisheries that occur within it under Federal management by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) and NOAA Fisheries. Amendment 14 would manage the Cook Inlet EEZ Subarea by applying the prohibition on commercial salmon fishing that is currently established in the West Area to the newly added Cook Inlet EEZ Subarea. The Council submitted Amendment 14 to the Salmon FMP to the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) for review.

Federal Register

MARY PELTOLA, SCOTT VAN VALIN, & MICHAEL KAMPNICH: Fisheries managers should reverse course on censoring public comments

May 14, 2021 — The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council process is difficult to navigate. It is a world of acronyms, statistics and legal jargon; but decisions made there impact the lives of all Alaskans, and directly affect allocations of federally-managed species — including king salmon and halibut — to Indigenous, sport and commercial stakeholders. Meetings occur over weeks and can last more than 10 hours per day. It requires significant time to participate, time the average Alaskan does not have. Recently, the Council enacted a policy that makes it more difficult for Alaskans to effectively advocate for their communities, businesses and food sources.

At the April meeting, a policy tightening restrictions on written public comment was quickly proposed and passed. This meeting drew an outpouring of testimony on two items: halibut and king salmon bycatch by the trawl sector. The overwhelming majority of testimony favored reducing that bycatch and managing it based on abundance. People expressed their viewpoints passionately. A few included profanity, but those were dwarfed by the number who respectfully expressed concerns about the future of our ocean ecosystems, fisheries, communities, cultures and livelihoods.

Late on the final day of the meeting, the Council adopted a policy that significantly tightened the rules on written testimony and gave Council staff broad authority to censor and filter comments. Part of their stated rationale for the new policy was that “members of the public linked the comment portal… and broadcast it on social media platforms (Facebook, Reddit), which generated numerous comments from people not familiar with the Council process” and “numerous comments were made prior to any documents being uploaded, and many comments were unrelated to the eAgenda item under which they were posted.” It may be frustrating to the Council when stakeholders are not as familiar with their process and culture as paid advocates whose lobbying contracts are compensation for intimate knowledge of the complex rules and relationships within the system. However, this is not a valid rationale for censoring the public, nor is it inappropriate to share information on how to participate with a broad audience of Alaskans for whom the process may be new or discouraging.

Read the full opinion piece at the Anchorage Daily News

NPFMC June meeting via Webconference

May 12, 2021 — The following was released by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The NPFMC will hold meetings June 1-16, 2021, via webconference.  The eAgenda, Schedule, and a list of when documents are available is now posted. Please note the SSC has a separate SSC eAgenda. More detailed information is available on our website.

You can submit comments for each agenda item through the Council and SSC eAgendas. Written public comment for the Council is open May 12 – 26th at 5:00 PM AST.  Comments will be reviewed, then publicly posted after the deadline.  The full draft comment policy can be viewed here.

If you have questions, please email npfmc.admin@noaa.gov.

Read the full release here

DAVID WITHERELL: Council responds on public comment changes

May 11, 2021 — I read NF’s op-ed “Cut off: Council makes sweeping changes on public input” on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council policy change on written public comments, and I would like an opportunity to clarify and answer the questions you pose.

The council’s policy on written comments changes every couple of years. It has been modified several times in the past two years in response to changes in technology and an interest by the council in making it easier for the public to provide written comments.

Since I started working for the council, we have gone from getting comments by regular mail, to fax, to email, and most recently (in 2018) to an open and direct comment portal. The portal has been wildly successful in that comments have increased in response, and the public has expressed appreciation for the development of the portal, and ease of commenting and reviewing comments. The comment portal is just one recent initiative to create more public input opportunities.

The council established a Community Engagement Committee in 2018 to identify and recommend strategies for the council and council staff to enact processes that provide effective community engagement with rural and Alaska Native communities. While it was intended to be a temporary committee, the council opted to expand its membership and retain it as a standing committee.

Read the full opinion piece at National Fisherman